104 x 143 mm. A mounted and framed print. The portrait is a full length studio photograph and shows Mary Kingsley standing beside a stone balustrade against a painted backdrop of gardens and woodland. Also mounted in the frame photograph is a letter from her brother Charles Kingsley to Sir John Smalman Smith dated August 31 1901, presenting him with the portrait and remarking: 'For some reason, she did not care for this portrait but it has always seemed to me to be by far the best one that was ever taken of her'.

Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) was a niece of the novelist Charles Kingsley and daughter of a father who was largely absent travelling the world from one adventure to another. Consequently, the first thirty years of her life were spent nursing her mother. On the death of both her parents in 1892 she decided to travel to West Africa in order to gain material to complete her father's work on the customs and religions of its peoples.

Her first journey lasted from August 1893 until January 1894, during which she visited St. Paul do Loando, Ambriz, Kabinda and Matadi. Her second expedition, from December 1894 until November 1895, took in Old Calabar and explorations up the Ogowe River. While the explicit purpose of the journeys was for study and the collection of fish and insects, their most important fruits were the influence she was to wield in her opinions on the colonization of Africa. The following years were spent in writing and lecturing on the subject and a further visit to West Africa was postponed owing to the outbreak of the Boer War. Mary Kingsley died of enteric fever while nursing Boer prisoners of war at Simon's Town.